The Freer House: A Detroit Mansion That Built a Smithsonian Museum
Near Detroit, Michigan
Charles Lang Freer made his fortune building railroad cars in Detroit, then spent it acquiring one of the finest Asian art collections in the world. In eighteen ninety he commissioned Philadelphia architect Wilson Eyre to design a Shingle Style home on East Ferry Avenue with interiors built around his paintings. In nineteen oh four he acquired James Whistler's Peacock Room, installing it in his carriage house.
Two years later Freer offered his entire collection to the nation. President Theodore Roosevelt accepted. The Freer Gallery of Art opened on the National Mall in Washington in nineteen twenty-three, the first art museum built there.
The Peacock Room went with it, where it remains on permanent display. The Detroit house became the Merrill-Palmer Institute and is now part of Wayne State University.
